Tuesday

Just read an interesting post by Paul Murphy on ZDNet. He said a lot of interesting things about Sun and gave some good advice to our company. I like this in particular:

Basically: the strategy would be to charge a premium price for a premium product and differentiate on operational stability.

Build on the Fujitsu relationship, stay the course with the big data center customers, but focus a lot more effort in the small to mid range market: the people who desperately want stuff that “just works” and now think they have nowhere to go.

These people are angry about IT, about something that looks so simple but costs them money and aggravation every single day of the week -and no one’s telling them that Sun has exactly what they need. Bundle open source applications with preconfigured hardware, provide personalized sales and real operational support, add legal protections, push Sun Ray, and these guys will stampede to Sun.

And that, particularly for the people who work at Sun, is really where the silver lining is for today’s market behavior.

I know when I came to Sun, I was completely Microsoft and Apple brainwashed. Then, I downloaded OpenOffice and StarOffice and realized I could have been getting for free everything that I had been paying for -- for years! And, I discovered that Java is the most popular programming language in the world. Now, I'm helping to bring the best cloud computing solution to the market. And, I'm sure proud to be here.

Friday

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- A 43-year-old Japanese woman whose sudden divorce in a virtual game world made her so angry that she killed her online husband's digital persona has been arrested on suspicion of hacking, police said Thursday.

Online environments such as "Second Life" -- where users control avatars -- have emerged in recent years.

The woman, who is jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his identification and password to log onto popular interactive game "Maple Story" to carry out the virtual murder in mid-May, a police official in northern Sapporo said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

"I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry," the official quoted her as telling investigators and admitting the allegations. [read more]

Thursday

I have spondylolisthesis. This is the forward movement of one vertebrae over another. In my case, it's the lumbar region and effects L4, L5, and S1.

Lots of people have this and never know. It usually starts in childhood, and especially in athletes who participate in sports like gymnastics.

I was never a gymnast. My back problems started when this guy, who was already on probation and shouldn't have been driving, must have decided he didn't like me or my vehicle on the road. In his rage, he hit my SUV on the passenger side at the rear at about 55 mph. My car, in motion parallel to him, started spinning as if it were on butter. We crossed 3 lanes of traffic, spinning and spinning, hit a curb, and flipped a few times. Jason sped off, leaving me and my passenger to our fate.

I remember Carol exited the vehicle very quickly. It had landed on its side and I found my head in the dirt. All the windows had exploded and there was glass everywhere. Someone looked in from above (he had climbed up the car and was looking down at me through the passenger window) and told me not to open my eyes because glass was all over me. I got up, but I couldn't exit the vehicle the same way Carol had. My legs just didn't work right.

When I did finally get out of the car, some nice man was doing triage on Carol and he asked me to lie down. I told him that I didn't want to because my back was on fire. But, I was too tired to argue. When I did lie down, my right leg twitched constantly. This was the first sign there was something very wrong. That was January of 2002.

Anyway, I've had several doctors take care of this over the years including PTs, a chiropractor, and two orthopedic surgeons. Every now and then, I get an epidural steroid injection in my spine to reduce swelling and aid in healing. I can only do 3 or 4 of those a year because of the implications to the liver and bones of repeated steroid use. I take Neurontin to reduce the symptoms of the nerve pain throughout my body that mimics peripheral neuropathy. Ibuprofen is my friend.

I had my last epidural steroid injection on Sep 26 after a few weeks of, well, really excruciating pain. This was the kind of pain that makes it hard to focus on work or family. That's when I go back to the doctor. That's what it takes. I can walk pretty well now and am in PT again. PT. Pain and Torture.

PT isn't that bad at all. The hard part of this time around was with the lecture he gave me on my first visit. My spine is unstable. It has slipped and slipped again. He said that what I have should be viewed the same as someone with diabetes or high blood pressure. Someone with diabetes HAS to take insulin or pills to live. Someone with high blood pressure has to take pills every day. What I HAVE to do every day is exercise my core. That's the "tape" around my spine. If my core isn't strong, then the vulnerable area of my spine will continue to degrade and slip. Eventually, stenosis will cause permanent damage to nerves. I know I haven't been doing my part.

I thought that wakeboarding, snowboarding, playing softball and such were good things. He explained they were not unless I had a strong core. Yeech.

My grandmother and an aunt have the same thing. Recently, I found out that my grandma can't walk anymore, even after back surgery. She's been in pain most of her life. I think I get it now. I'm off to exercise again.

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About Y

I do cloud computing stuff. This is my personal blog, so don't hold any of it against any particular company. These thoughts are my own.
I was a panelist at SxSWi 2008, Interactive Austin 2008, and I've produced over 100 podcasts on all kinds of technology topics. I contributed to the book PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences by Deirdre Breakenridge published by FT Press in 2008 and I'm on the FG2 Social Web Advisory Panel. I love the BarCamp scene, and you recently could have found me at CloudCamp SV.
I like to explore what seems to be impossible. You can find me taking risks sometimes -- snowboarding, skiing, SCUBA diving or wake boarding when the season is right. I'm certified in ITIL v3 best practices.

- Speaker at the Houston Business Wire Wire-Side Chat on the topic "The Road to Web 3.0" and "The Changing Face of Influence in the Digital Age" with David Almacy, Vice President of the Digital Strategies Group at Waggener Edstrom

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